Former child actor admits taking part in double yacht murder

The young man and his friends appeared to be genuinely interested in buying the $500,000 yacht. The retired couple selling the boat were delighted to have found a buyer. Now they could spend more time with their grandchildren in Arizona.

Their initial suspicions that the buyers were not typical yacht people were assuaged when the man brought his wife and their baby to see the yacht. A former child actor, he even attempted to impress them by telling them of his role in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. But when they took the yacht out to sea from its mooring in Newport Beach, south of Los Angeles, things turned ugly. The man and his associates overpowered Tom and Jackie Hawks, forced them to sign over ownership of the yacht, handcuffed them to the anchor and tossed them overboard.

"No bodies, no murder," Skylar Deleon is alleged to have told an associate after the November 2004 crime.

In the opening statements of Deleon's murder trial his attorney, Gary Pohlson, took the unusual step of admitting his client was guilty in order to save him from the death penalty. "My goal is simply to save Skylar Deleon's life," Pohlson told the court. "He is guilty of [the] murders."

He argued that Deleon hatched the plan to gain ownership of the 55ft (16.7-metre) yacht because he was facing severe debt and lived in a converted garage, but said he was no more guilty than his associates.

Prosecutor Matt Murphy said Deleon had simply tricked the couple for financial gain. "The evidence is going to show that is how Tom and Jackie Hawks died, begging for their lives," Murphy said.

Deleon's now ex-wife, Jennifer Henderson, was convicted of murder in 2006 and sentenced to two life terms. Three other men await trial for murder.